Choir & Organ is the leading independent magazine for all professionals and amateurs in the choral and organ worlds – whether you are an organist, choral director or singer, organ builder, keen listener, or work in publishing or the record industry, Choir & Organ is a must-read wherever you live and work.

Every two months our expert contributors bring you beautifully illustrated features on newly built and restored organs, insights into the lives and views of leading organists, choral directors and composers, profiles of pioneering and well-established choirs, and topical coverage of new research, festivals and exhibitions. In keeping with our commitment to music at the cutting edge, we commission a new work from a young composer in every issue, making the score freely available for download and performance.

Our international news and previews, with breaking stories, key awards and forthcoming premieres, combine with reviews of the latest CDs, DVDs and sheet music, and listings of recitals, festivals and courses, to keep you up to date with events and developments around the world.

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Kenneth Tickell dies

29 July 2014

British organ builder Kenneth Tickell died suddenly on 24
July, following a pulmonary embolism.

Having trained in organ building with Grant, Degens and
Bradbeer, Tickell established his first workshop in Northampton in 1982. From
that time, he built up a business of nine full-time staff members to match an
impressive portfolio of mainly new instruments, among them chamber organs for Westminster
Abbey and Canterbury, Lincoln, Bristol, Truro, St Davids, Hereford and St
Paul’s, London cathedrals, and for Magdalen College, Oxford, and Jesus and
Selwyn colleges, Cambridge; and from his first 3-manual instrument for Douai
Abbey in 1993, large organs for St Barnabas, Dulwich, Eton College, Cheltenham
Ladies’ College, Lincoln’s Inn Chapel, London, St Mary’s Cathedral, Newcastle
upon Tyne, and 4-manual organs for Worcester Cathedral and Keble College,
Oxford. Though his commissions were mainly UK-based, Tickell also built organs
for Italy, the EU Baroque Orchestra, the church of Nesbyen, Norway, the
Venerabile Collegio Inglese, Rome, Pilgrim Uniting Church, Adelaide, and the
University of Queensland, Australia, and most recently Rikkyo Gakuin
University, Tokyo (featured in the July/August issue of Choir & Organ).

Tickell was an accomplished organist, having studied with
Robert Weddle, Francis Jackson, Simon Lindley and Gillian Weir, gaining his
FRCO in 1977 and graduating in Music
from Hull University (where he was organ scholar) in 1978. For many years he
was Director of Music at St Mary’s, Northampton.

He was a founder
member and first President from 1996-2001 of the Institute of British Organbuilding,
and remained an Executive Board member.

Choir & Organ Composition Competition 2014 – Results

23 July 2014

Seán Doherty has won the
Choir & Organ Composition Competition 2014, held in partnership with Merton College, Oxford, with his carol A Nywe Werk.
Doherty declared himself ‘delighted’ to have won: ‘The opportunity to enter,
with these jury members, was too good to miss.’

Entrants were asked to submit an Advent or Christmas carol for up to 8-voice
unaccompanied choir (SATB div) of a suitable standard for the Choir of Merton
College, and to a text of the composer’s choice. Doherty wrote an energetic
SSAATTBB unaccompanied setting of the text of an anonymous 15th-century carol
in the Selden manuscript: ‘A nywe werk is come on honed’ (A new work is come on
hand).

Doherty, from Derry in Northern Ireland, studied at St
John’s College, Cambridge, before engaging in postgraduate research at Trinity
College, University of Dublin. Commissions have included a short opera, Number
Seven, for the 2012 Cultural Olympiad, and a choral work, Doire, to celebrate
Derry/Londonderry City of Culture 2013.

A distinguished jury of Benjamin Nicholas (Reed Rubin Organist and Director of
Music of Merton College, Oxford), Simon Halsey
(chief conductor of the Berlin Radio Choir, chorus director of the CBSO Chorus,
and choral director of the LSO and Chorus), Donald Nally (director of The
Crossing, and professor at Northwestern University), Meurig Bowen (artistic
director, Cheltenham Festival) and Matthew Martin (composer) chose Doherty’s piece from a total of 27 entries
sent from France, Germany, Poland, the US, and the UK. Runner-up was
Balulalow by Edward Nesbit, and third equal were John Wadsworth’s A baby is a
harmless thing, and Shine Forth by Barnaby Martin.

Seán Doherty wins a prize of £1,000 and will be interviewed in the November/December 2014 issue of Choir
& Organ. The premiere of A
Nywe Werk will be given by the Choir of Merton College, Oxford, directed by
Benjamin Nicholas, on 4 December in Merton College Chapel, Oxford.

Change of date for C&O new music premiere

22 July 2014

The premiere of Gareth Wilson's 'Prologue', in partnership with Merton College Oxford, will now take place on Thursday 30 October at Evensong and not on 12 October as previously advertised.

Choir & Organ’s New Music series is a group of specially commissioned pieces written by some of the most talented young composers around.

In every issue of Choir & Organ magazine, you’ll find a profile of the composer providing an insight into the new work; the scores, licensed for six months, can be download from www.choirandorgan.com.

In 2014, our New Music partner is Merton College, Oxford. The Choir of Merton College will give the premieres of our three choral commissions and the winning entry in the Choir & Organ 2014 Composition Competition. All four choral pieces will be included in the Merton Choirbook, being compiled to celebrate the College’s 750th anniversary in 2014. The two organ compositions will be premiered on the new Dobson organ in the College Chapel.

Genesis Sixteen appoints first student conductor

18 July 2014

Anna Jones

The Sixteen’s young artists’ scheme, Genesis Sixteen, has announced the
appointment of their first student conductor. King's College, Cambridge
graduate Robbie Jacobs will be the first to fill the role. Jacobs is currently
studying at the Royal Academy of Music for his masters in Choral Conducting.

Jacobs has worked with the London Youth Choir and has travelled to Kigali, Rwanda to do vocal coaching.

In his new role, Jacobs will participate in all
four Genesis Sixteen courses during 2014/15 and will conduct some public
performances. Speaking of the impact of the Genesis Sixteen on singers, Jacobs
said that it has a ‘transformative impact on their musical perspectives and
increased the scope of their career aspirations’.

Genesis Sixteen aims to nurture the next generation of ensemble
singers. During the course of a year, a series of week-long and weekend courses
are led by key figures such as The Sixteen’s founder and conductor Harry
Christophers and associate conductor Eamonn Dougan. Those taking part receive
group tuition, individual mentoring and are led in masterclasses by vocal
experts.

British firm to build the largest pipe organ in NewZealand

18 July 2014

The
Malvern firm of Nicholson & Co has been commissioned to build their largest
organ so far, for Holy Trinity Cathedral in Auckland, New Zealand. The organ
will also be the company’s first in the southern hemisphere.

Featuring
two stunning cases by leading designer, Didier Grassin, the ‘New Voice’ organ will sit on either side of the crossing in
chambers made available by the removal of the nave bridge. From this position,
the organ will speak with into both the chancel and the nave, while drawing the
eye through the dramatic new vista opened up along the length of the building.

With
90 speaking stops and 5,215 pipes, the organ will be the largest in New
Zealand, and the largest church organ to be made in Britain for 70 years. It
will be played from two identical consoles: a fixed console in a loft above the
Cathedral’s Marsden Chapel, and a movable console in the nave, each with four
manuals and 122 drawstops, and equipped with the latest playing aids.

Work
in Nicholson’s Malvern factory will start in July 2015, with completion in the
Cathedral by October 2017.